Biden honors firefighters, jokes they saved his Corvette

5/9/13 7:37 PM EDT

Vice President Joe Biden has lots of stories about firefighters and EMTs.

There’s the one about their rescuing his sons from a tragic car accident that killed his wife in 1972. And their transporting him through a snowstorm in 1987 when he suffered life-threatening cranial aneurysms. And then there was the time in 2004 when lightning struck his home in Delaware.

“I was down here doing a Sunday program, and lightning struck my home and destroyed a significant portion of it, and you got my wife out,” Biden said at a Washington dinner for first responders Thursday. “…And in addition to my wife, you got my second-best love out of the house: my ‘67 Corvette. So thank you all. So I owe you. When I say I owe you, I mean I owe you.”

The vice president, delivering the key note address at the 25th Annual National Fire and Emergency Services Dinner of the Congressional Fire Services Institute, also cracked a joke about his political ambitions.

“You know, I know the press often points out that I tried to get elected president twice and never made it, but I want you to know in 2004, I made it,” he said. “I’m a president emeritus of the Delaware Volunteer Fire Association. So I have made it to the presidency -- the important one.”

On a serious note, Biden hailed their service and sacrifice and said, “Millions of people across this country owe you for what you’ve done for them and what you do for them every single day.

“You are the most selfless group of men and women I’ve ever been engaged with. Whether you’re volunteer or paid, you put your lives on the line every time you suit up and you do it again and again and again,” he said.

The vice president also previewed an effort led by Attorney General Eric Holder to ensure families of fallen public safety officers get benefits faster. Biden said they have had to wait much too long to receive them in the past.

“That’s why I’m proud to tell you that on Monday -- I don’t want to steal his thunder, but a guy’s been working round the clock to fix this -- the attorney general of the United States will have an announcement to make fixing that problem, finally,” he said.

POLITICO 44

Donovan Slack

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